Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Kensington & Chelsea council meeting lobbied to support £8.55 London Living Wage
As this week's issue of Cleanzine was 'put to bed', GMB, the union representing workers employed by OCS, was about to lobby the full council meeting of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, to support a motion asking the council to pay a London living wage of £8.55, to direct and contracted staff.
This fits in with the GMB ongoing campaign for OCS cleaners who have already taken three days of strike action for a London living wage of £8.55 per hour. They currently earn £7.18 per hour.
OCS holds the contract to provide cleaning services for Kensington & Chelsea Tenants' Management Organisation (TMO) and the cleaners provide services for the residents on housing estates in the north and south of the borough.
Gary Carter, GMB Regional Officer, said: "A London living wage is becoming a bigger issue across the Royal Borough as OCS cleaners have recently taken three days' strike action in their campaign for a living wage of £8.55 per hour.
"Kensington & Chelsea is the wealthiest borough in UK and workers providing services to residents in the borough should be paid a wage they can live on. Low waged workers require their incomes to be topped up by taxpayers to enable them to make ends meet. This is not fair to either taxpayers or the workers. Residents of the Borough should be able to see this and get the Councillors to support this motion.
"A London living wage is being adopted by more employers in the public and private sectors across the capital and is supported by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The council has the ability and finances to ensure council employees and contractors are paid the London living wage."
The motion read as follows:
"As the cost of living rises and income stagnates, this Council is very concerned about the long-term effect of low wages on many of the borough's residents. The combination of low and stagnant wages, short-term and zero-hour contracts and part-time work is forcing people for the first time to apply for social security welfare payments, thereby relying on additional financial resources from the tax payer at a time when we are hoping to make sensible and sustainable efficiency savings that do not affect front-line services.
"This Council is committed to create strong and resilient communities that are stable and self-supporting. Therefore this Council commits that from the 2014-15 financial year all directly employed and contracted staff will be paid at least the London Living Wage of £8.55 as determined by the GLA (Greater London Authority). This Council further commits to review its procurement, contract and best value polices to ensure that all workers directly or indirectly employed by the Council will be paid the London Living Wage."
17th October 2013